Dengue fever

The National Anti-Dengue Programme has announced plans to distribute 180 tonnes of the insecticide Abate in selected provinces in Cambodia.

Added to water, Abate helps to kill mosquito larvae and prevent the spread of adult mosquitoes.

Ngan Chantha, director of the Programme, said distribution had originally been designated for all 24 of the Kingdom’s provinces but that limited quantities and rising costs had necessitated an amendment to the plan.

“We have three conditions for areas to receive Abate,” he said, adding that only those areas that were designated as rural and that had a high level of confirmed dengue cases would qualify.

In August last year, the Programme announced a similar plan to distribute 100 tonnes of Abate in 24 provinces. Ngan Chantha said the latest plan was aimed at reaching areas that did not previously receive Abate because of a shortfall in supplies.

According to the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, there have been 3,771 reported cases of dengue and 10 deaths in the first seven months of 2010.

The same period in 2009 saw 2,355 cases and seven deaths from the disease.